The End of the World

We made it! We are currently sitting in an internet cafe in the beach town of Finisterre - traditionally known as the end of the world because it is the westernmost point in this region of Spain. We arrived in Santiago on the 9th, but I was too busy celebrating to find any internet. On the 11th we resumed our walk - intensely - and covered the last 90 kilometers in only 3 days, arriving here at the beach yesterday.

The walk was pretty rough - long days and lots of hills - but nothing we couldn't handle. It was also really, really hot, which is unusual for this region of Spain - the european equivalent of Seattle. Of course when we finally arrived in Finisterre the weather went back to normal and it has been cloudy and raining the whole time we have been here. This, we have learned, is the typical way of the Camino. And yes, we think of the Camino as an entity.

At the end of the experience we walked at least 854 kilometers, not including detours, backtracks, alternate routes, and strolls around town, in 41 days and entirely by foot. We spent an entire 24 hours in a single town only twice in this entire time. We ran (or walked) upon 3 different village fiestas and made lots of new friends. As soon as I am done here, we are walking the final 3 kilometers down to the lighthouse at the very tip of the peninsula, where we will set fire to our most disgusting clothing and celebrate with a bottle of Spanish champagne.

Since the weather is so unpleasant we are going to retreat to Santiago - by bus this time - and stay with one of our camino friends who is studying there until we are forced to return to the real world. It will be strange to travel by any means other than foot - and strange to travel a distance that took us 3 days to walk in only an hour or so. It will also be strange to: have clean clothes, take a real shower (possibly with an actual scrubbing device of some kind), and have to find real ways to entertain ourselves.

Now that we are at the end of our journey it is interesting to see the other pilgrims reflect on their caminos. It seems that they appear to be plit into two different groups - those who are in love with it and plan to do it again and those who have more of a "it was great, but never again" kind of attitude. Those in the latter group describe the camino as a very emotionally trying experience, whereas perhaps those in the first group just didn't experience that same challenge. Either way, Kate and I are solidly in the "plan to do it again" group. Kate is already making plans to walk from Paris next year, although she will have to overcome her aversion to rain.